Jiggathebauce

The goof down the street with the "Lets Go Brandon" bumper sticker on his car who posts stupid memes on Facebook negatively comparing the men who landed on Omaha Beach with Gen Z will be the first one to complain when asked to make the barest minimum of sacrifice.  

Well, there goes pretty much every book in 18th and 19th century literature in every tradition folks...

I'm from ex Yugoslavia, so I have a different view.

Guys - look you probably have  plenty of examples  of bad things in past literature - Its the nature of  things . I enjoy  Literature and Non fiction from times when   people of color  were clearly being  treated as less than human in literature of the times . Do I think such Books need to be purged from  our Libraries ? Well - personally no  . And I'll happily keep what Russian Literature I have as well - safe on my bookshelves . When you start targeting the Literature /Books of a Culture for reasons of the moment  -  you are heading down a troublesome path that I have no interest in going down .

https://www.polskieradio.pl/395/9766/artykul/3117882,ukraine-purges-libraries-of-19-million-sovietera-books

The truth is it took a little Chinese "communism" too to make these affordable (?) to the masses. Capitalism and consumerism has also polluted environment, food, cultures, health systems, politics, polluted arts and sports and its by no means a panacea for the future of humans.  We can do better and I would trade a more human center system than fancy ten camera iPhones. 
And ultimately I think capitalism is causing the downfall of West and it's ideals rooted in the Athenian democracy and classical era. 
Remember West and US particularly created its big and possibly deadly rival in the form of China with the uncontrolled outsourcing and tech export because "capital has no country". 

You are contradicting yourself. I share your experience and I know a lot of people, who are not in it for getting rich and would be perfectly happy to continue the job as long as their needs are somehow cared for. You don't need capitalism for that.
 
Wrong. There are plenty of good ideas out there that don't get funding because of just bad luck or, what's worse, seeing those good ideas come to fruition would hurt current business models.
On the other hand there are lots and lots b of really bad ideas that get funding.
The failure of capitalism to improve the everyday life of Russians is, in parts at least, to blame for having Putin as autocrat in the first place, though.

Yes AI will have to bring changes to the system. I hope the elite understands they can't put everyone out of work while they hold the keys to automation and the big share of goods. This will either lead to most people going extinct or to another revolution like in 1789. Hopefully the second. 

Feudalism also worked, overall. The only reason it stopped was because the world changed.
I don't think anybody really knows what will replace capitalism, but we just know something needs to replace it eventually.
Not because it doesn't "work", but because it can't keep going. We can't have continual material growth on a finite planet, no matter how much we want to.

Of course capitalism "works" but it doesn't work in a way that is useful for society. A good economical system converts greed into productivity. This never actually worked reliably but since WW2 capitalism managed to sell the narrative that it does. Work hard and you will get rich or at least have enough money for a good life. We were fed the stories of people with good ideas who worked hard and became millionaires. We weren't told about survivor bias and that those people ultimate were just those who got lucky. At least up to a decade or two ago it was good enough that a large middle class was created, mostly in the western democracies.
But in the end capitalism is not about hard work, it is, as the name implies, about capital. Which ultimately means making money by having money. And that only works with interests. You lend someone money and expect to get back more than you gave him. Since that is what our whole economy is about we need perpetual growth (because otherwise you can't pay interests). And it is not about hard work. You very rarely get rich by working hard. But if you have money, you very reliably get more money. That is the opposite of converting greed to productivity.
Now, about the middle class: We currently ser a decline of the middle class in many western countries. That's because it was kind of an accident that got corrected by globalization. The middle class are well educated people whom companies needed to produce their ever more complicated products and who thus made the money to actually buy them. Nowadays we have cheap but well educated people in far off countries and still some middle class here to buy stuff but which often largely exists because countries subsidize companies to stay in the country, often making debts in the process. But since one person's debts are another person's capital that model, for now, works even better.
But once AI and automation make the vast majority of jobs vanish (and that will happen!) plus climate change showing us that perpetual growth on a finite planet can't work this whole system is in serious trouble.

I could recommend you some reading on that lol. While what you're saying is sensible, the things you're advocating for that would keep the system going, are not the direction folks in charge have been going in either the government or industry. Been this way since Thatcher...
 
 
 
 
 

I could recommend you some reading on that lol. While what you're saying is sensible, the things you're advocating for that would keep the system going, are not the direction folks in charge have been going in either the government or industry. Been this way since Thatcher...
 
 
 
 
 

I could recommend you some reading on that lol. While what you're saying is sensible, the things you're advocating for that would keep the system going, are not the direction folks in charge have been going in either the government or industry. Been this way since Thatcher...
 
 
 
 
 

I could recommend you some reading on that lol. While what you're saying is sensible, the things you're advocating for that would keep the system going, are not the direction folks in charge have been going in either the government or industry. Been this way since Thatcher...
 
 
 
 
 

Oh my dear sweet hobbit, it is all the rage:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-capitalism
https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=the+end+of+capitalism&gclid=CjwKCAiA_6yfBhBNEiwAkmXy5zDxVlZbB-qEZB_W3e3pabpsITBmsDYvu9mE1ltmgTLxcVWyA1FkPhoCdm0QAvD_BwE&hvadid=208312141359&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9000685&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=15884104887862575394&hvtargid=kwd-354484366687&hydadcr=23313_10093172&tag=googcana-20&ref=pd_sl_r5hsdx43m_e
I think the major issue is the fact that in order to function it needs to expand and nothing can do this indefinitely.  And the impact of AI may break it as well - https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/07/02/how-artificial-intelligence-could-kill-capitalism/
Personally, I do not think I read in enough to have an opinion.

 
 

I could recommend you some reading on that lol. While what you're saying is sensible, the things you're advocating for that would keep the system going, are not the direction folks in charge have been going in either the government or industry. Been this way since Thatcher...
 
 
 
 
 

The term we always see for this is "a rising tide lifts all boats".  But only for those w boats.

I'm glad you read the articles and found them enlightening. 😃And I agree, elites don't care about economic issues except to benefit themselves as a class. 
You'll find that the only thing I disagree  with you on is  the framing, and that's not your fault. The elites you're referring to who are screaming at the top of their lungs are liberals,not leftists. Like the right wing, they have chosen to frame thing in terms of a culture war and, more critically, ignore the economic dimensions of these social struggles( climate, race, gender often ARE big economic issues for the people affected, and we all are affected by them, wether benefiting or being harmed). 
You'll ironically find that the only thing that socialists, anarchists, communists dislike more than the right wing is the liberals. They co-opt social movements asking for meaningful change and make them safe for corporate commodification, and harmless to the status quo.  They signal support for tepid reforms and first capture, then strangle the momentum of any drift that makes their alliance with their more conservative elite colleagues too uncomfortable- and if you think they're truly opposed to each other, see how quick the Dems and 'the most pro union president in US history' joined republicans in opposing rail workers two months ago. I'm sure the tragedy in Ohio recently is a direct result of that one btw.
These liberals openly join their conservative colleagues to oppose economic justice, then have the gall to take on the mantle of 'the left' while suppressing the actual left from the mainstream conversation! They have successfully kept us out and at the margins since the 1950's in the US for example.  
Anyhow, outside of the opening you gave in your response there,  I will keep my politics at a minimum except where relevant to the discussion on the war.  Glad I can participate and add useful perspectives. 

AI will be the biggest game changer for sure. What people don't seem to realize yet (or they do and don't want to accept it) is that AI is not just going to the next industrial revolution in which some jobs will vanish but other new ones will take over. This time there will just be less jobs. And not just those for the less well educated. People deceive themselves by seeing only the flaws that ChatGPT & Co still have. But it is already aparent that many of the BS jobs will go and even software developers up to a certain level aren't safe. ChatGPT and others are already often on the level of junior developers. Obviously less AI developers will be needed than all the jobs that are going to be replaced by AI. And even if that were different: We usually don't like to talk about it but few and fewer people will be intelligent enough to do it.

This comes on top of the crisis the system democracy + capitalism is facing already. This system is based on the promise that although capitalism will always be unfair but perpetual growth will (somehow) still improve everyone's life. Over the last two or so decades we have seen that this promise holds less and less and this is why people look (again) to the Strong Leader like Putin or Xi (or Trump). Climate change will obviously make all of this much worse.

Well, interesting times...

All true, but the first and hardest one is to get peoples attention at all, about anything. The infinity of rabbit holes to crawl down is making a movement for or against anything harder. And this is itself open to manipulation by the big players.

https://lefteast.org/it-is-always-darkest-before-the-dawn-how-russian-anarchists-today-struggle-for-revolution/
Really interesting interview with anarchists in Russia who are sabotaging railways(sharing recipes on their telegram even) and firebombing recruitment centers. 
You'll also find that their analysis of conditions in Russia echoes a lot of what has been discussed in this forum, as well as being sober in realizing that getting consensus for a different future is difficult.
 
https://commons.com.ua/en/im-ukrainian-socialist-heres-why-i-resist-russian-invasion/
 
And here is the article I referred to earlier, it's by a Ukrainian TDF member. Some of the choicest bits-
The following three paragraphs outline his thoughts on Zelensky,  offer a counter to accusations around Ukraine's language policies, and acknowledge that should he fail, worse movements and actors will take his place 
 
And a more general outlook if Ukraine loses and powers like Russia win
 

https://lefteast.org/it-is-always-darkest-before-the-dawn-how-russian-anarchists-today-struggle-for-revolution/
Really interesting interview with anarchists in Russia who are sabotaging railways(sharing recipes on their telegram even) and firebombing recruitment centers. 
You'll also find that their analysis of conditions in Russia echoes a lot of what has been discussed in this forum, as well as being sober in realizing that getting consensus for a different future is difficult.
 
https://commons.com.ua/en/im-ukrainian-socialist-heres-why-i-resist-russian-invasion/
 
And here is the article I referred to earlier, it's by a Ukrainian TDF member. Some of the choicest bits-
The following three paragraphs outline his thoughts on Zelensky,  offer a counter to accusations around Ukraine's language policies, and acknowledge that should he fail, worse movements and actors will take his place 
 
And a more general outlook if Ukraine loses and powers like Russia win
 

https://lefteast.org/it-is-always-darkest-before-the-dawn-how-russian-anarchists-today-struggle-for-revolution/
Really interesting interview with anarchists in Russia who are sabotaging railways(sharing recipes on their telegram even) and firebombing recruitment centers. 
You'll also find that their analysis of conditions in Russia echoes a lot of what has been discussed in this forum, as well as being sober in realizing that getting consensus for a different future is difficult.
 
https://commons.com.ua/en/im-ukrainian-socialist-heres-why-i-resist-russian-invasion/
 
And here is the article I referred to earlier, it's by a Ukrainian TDF member. Some of the choicest bits-
The following three paragraphs outline his thoughts on Zelensky,  offer a counter to accusations around Ukraine's language policies, and acknowledge that should he fail, worse movements and actors will take his place 
 
And a more general outlook if Ukraine loses and powers like Russia win
 

https://lefteast.org/it-is-always-darkest-before-the-dawn-how-russian-anarchists-today-struggle-for-revolution/
Really interesting interview with anarchists in Russia who are sabotaging railways(sharing recipes on their telegram even) and firebombing recruitment centers. 
You'll also find that their analysis of conditions in Russia echoes a lot of what has been discussed in this forum, as well as being sober in realizing that getting consensus for a different future is difficult.
 
https://commons.com.ua/en/im-ukrainian-socialist-heres-why-i-resist-russian-invasion/
 
And here is the article I referred to earlier, it's by a Ukrainian TDF member. Some of the choicest bits-
The following three paragraphs outline his thoughts on Zelensky,  offer a counter to accusations around Ukraine's language policies, and acknowledge that should he fail, worse movements and actors will take his place 
 
And a more general outlook if Ukraine loses and powers like Russia win